Hes willing to sell for extremely cheap and just wants the thing out of this life.

By having the insurance on the property add you as mortgagee.Follow these pointers and you have no worries.

I kept that license about 30 years.Right after you close get an insurance policy that will protect you if there is a loss.  

First of all, this would be an insurance nightmare should someone get injured on common area.

So the Mortgage includes the taxes and insurance. 

Realty Tax is about 18k a year insurance $7500 water sewer avg $16k utilities $8-9k.

Buy at a great price + location + good numbersRentals don't have to be rocket science.Figure rental rate based on like kind rented properties near by.Subtract: taxes, insurance, repair % (7.5%, but varies based on prop condition), vacancy (2 months), capex (5%, but varies based on prop condition/age), pm if using (8-10%).

Is he retiring to the good life on a beach?

That can work.I'm wondering if you can somehow creatively do this deal where you pay an extra $5000 for this new condo, but have $5000 held back by the seller for you to do some kind of upgrades, but then just use the $5000 to pay down your original condo so you can get to 80% LTV in order to drop the PMI insurance and refinance at a more realistic rate.Is that HOA monthly? 

We usually act as out own GC so I figured we'd have to do it on this job, too, but life would be so much easier if I could have someone handle it for $150/ sq ft.